


Persona Vivid Monochrome

by Ibellasnowrider



Series: Persona Vivid Monochome Series [1]
Category: Persona 3, Persona 4, Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Gen, LGBTQ Themes, Multi, Original Character(s), Original Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-14 08:00:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29415255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ibellasnowrider/pseuds/Ibellasnowrider
Summary: Moving from Romania to Japan as a transfer student and arriving at the technological metropolis Towa City, 15 years old Michi Amanogawa quickly finds herself entangled between her school life, her personal home life and the VRMMORPG Twilight Atelier.She finds herself in Lethe, a rumored hidden alternate reality that exists within the game that is said to grant people the great power of "Persona" to change their Fate by battling monsters called "Shadows" lurking deep within it.Yet the ones who failed either went missing or have fallen into a "Deep Sleep"...Can Michi wake up from the dreamworld of Lethe and face her reality?
Series: Persona Vivid Monochome Series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2160897
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	Persona Vivid Monochrome

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Persona: Shatter](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28677186) by [CogAndStar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CogAndStar/pseuds/CogAndStar). 
  * Inspired by [Persona: The Sougawa Files](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14831952) by [Arsene_Phantom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arsene_Phantom/pseuds/Arsene_Phantom). 



> Much thanks and credit to my co-writer SKYS and my betas TriAttack and ℓαυrα, αmirite.
> 
> This work also used a custom font text as well, for better viewing please download the word font here: https://ricematerial.booth.pm/items/2485192
> 
> This is an Original Persona Story, much like the style of the Persona File Series and Persona Shatter Series. It is written as a novelization of an original Persona game where the cast are all original characters with canon characters being mentioned and having cameo appearances
> 
> This story will deal with more mature themes and will also have disturbing things happening in the story so there will be a content warning at the beginning of each chapter.
> 
> Copyright Discalmer: Persona and Shin Megami Tensei series belong to Atlus. The Little Prince is copyrighted/trademarked by The Saint-Exupéry-d’Agay Foundation/The Saint-Exupéry estate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content Warning: Hallucinations and minor body horror

**_“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality.”_ **

**_― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House_**

* * *

**Monday 4** **th** **April 20XX**

**Afternoon, Towa International Airport**

A 15-year-old girl stood alone outside of the taxi area of Towa International Airport, carrying two big suitcases and a backpack. She looked around for who she was supposed to meet.

“Are you Takanashi Ryunosuke?” asked the girl in Japanese in an Eastern-European accent. However, like most passersby, she was ignored. Some people paused to stare at her blond hair in twin braids, sun-kissed skin with freckles scatter around her face and heterochromia eyes, or her odd fashion choice, but they would move on without saying a word.

One of them, a young woman, even shot her a dirty look.

Suddenly, she heard a tapping sound from the glass behind her. She turned and saw a young man in his early to mid-twenties.

“Hey! Michi, over here!”, He mouthed those words through the glass as he gestured for her to join him.

Michi realized her mistake; embarrassed, she quickly grabbed her bags and braved back to the airport from the crowds in the terminal of the airport.

The noises and sounds from the crowds of people overwhelmed her quickly, so she decided to drop her bags to try and find a more quiet place. But the commotion around her made her feel squashed by loudness. 

As she felt more and more helpless with this situation. Someone tapped her shoulder. She turned and saw the young man in casual wear of t-shirt and slacks who she assumed was her older sister’s boyfriend. He had medium-length brown hair tied into a ponytail, a pair of paprika-coloured eyes hidden behind his glasses, and a warm smile. 

“You must be Michi, so sorry for not being clear on the meeting place.” The real Takanashi Ryunosuke nodded his head and apologized in a sincere tone. “Let me carry your luggage, it looks heavy. Is this all the stuff that you bought from Romania?”

“It’s all right, it is not your fault at all… I am just bad at directions… Most of my stuff will be sent by airmail in a few days, I think…. ugh, my head feels all dizzy...” Michi half-heartedly replied with a yawn.

Ryunosuke smiled and nodded understandably at her reply.

“Well then we should go then, I don’t want you to collapse in the airport and spend your first night in Japan at the airport hospital.” He said in jest. “And I won’t be a good host to you if your sister finds out about it.” Ryunosuke lightly chuckled while grabbing his car keys.

After he finished the little introduction, the two of them started towards the car park. As they walked, Michi felt even dizzier and even more nauseous due the combined stress from the airport and from the jetlag.

“Where is Ayumi anyway, I thought she would be here?” Michi continued, dragging her legs while doing some stretching exercises to keep herself awake.

“It seems that you have a pretty serious case of jetlag, not surprising since this is the first time you left Europe, or so Ayumi tells me. She’s still at the studio finishing her photo shoots.” Smiled Ryunosuke as he located his car.

“Right, for the promoootion of that Twilight-whatever game that is all hypppppe on the innnnnternet.” Michi mumbled sleepily as she climbed up the car and tried to find a sweet spot for her to rest while Ryunosuke moved her suitcases to the trunk of it.

“Well, you can take a nap during the drive. We might as well make a stop at the Parks’ in Kyonagi District to pick up some groceries and meal sets we ordered. Maybe you can also meet the family who runs it; they used to be my neighbours when I was younger and first arrived here. Pretty decent family but being Korean immigrants causes them a lot of trouble from the local thugs. Their son is at the same school year as you, but he’s currently sick. ” He paused himself before continuing, “Then we’ll drop by the studio on Yukari Street to pick up Ayumi after she’s done with her shoots and then we go to your new home in the Nasume District.” After he finished his long-winded makeshift orientation speech, Ryunosuke turned his full attention to the road.

“Right, right, so waaaake me up when we arri…. ZZZZ,” grumbled Michi as she slowly drifted to dreamland, letting her jacket’s rabbit-eared hood flop on her head.

Outside from the car window, a blue ethereal butterfly fluttered alongside the car, as it drove to the main streets of Towa.

* * *

**???**

_Her heart is an empty void, looking for fulfilment._

_The hurtful words start ringing in her head, all those unpleasant and hostile memories start to flood her mind as her body starts to turn transparent and glasslike._

_As her body slowly sunk into the void, muffled voices of mocking and jeering started to resurface._

_All Michi can see were faceless puppets in human clothing going through their daily lives by her side ignoring her and her doomed fate._

_or laughing at her foolishness of that plan…_

_All those precious happy memories all burn to ashes one by one..._

_“I don’t wanna face all those memories anymore, I hate them, it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts!” She wailed._

_A little alien-like ominous voice sounding that sounds like a thousand bells ringing asked her:_

**_ “then will yOu face yOur REALITY, and WAKE UP frOm the DREAM?”_ **

_“I….I !”_

* * *

**Park’s General Shop, Kyonagi District**

“Hey, Michi, wake up, we’ve arrived at the shop.” Ryunosuke patted Michi to wake her up, Michi begrudgingly rubbed her eyes and yawned loudly.

“Gee, you look like you saw a ghost! Guess I might need to send you home first and then pick up Ayumi then after we picked up the groceries.” Ryunosuke waved his head worryingly at Michi's pallid face.

“I’m alright, I can still move around you see?” laughed Michi mirthlessly while she tried to wave her arms to show that she still has enough energy.

“Ok, ok, Miss Sleepyhead. I can’t let you go out when you aren’t feeling well.” Ryunosuke gave his stern but sympathetic look to Michi.

“Alright, alright, I will stay in here with a barf bag,” Michi chuckled weakly, pointing at her backpack as she tried to remember her dream and the little voice.

It was a strange yet familiar dream, being slowly turned into glass and slowly forgotten by others, it was a repetition of the nightmare she always had after the accident from three years ago. 

However this time there was the little voice asking her that question, which is new.

How would she respond to its request of facing her reality and wake up from the dream? 

Her dream of what? Learning more about her family’s past? Meeting new friends that were not toxic like her former ones?

“Maybe a walk would clear my head up…”

Peeking out from her tired eyes, Michi saw one of those old Western-style storefronts like those from the _Whisper of the Heart_ movie. She started to hum its theme song to focus herself as she slowly stepped out of the car.

Deciding to wear her jacket with her hood on to avoid the people's eyes, she walked up to the shop following Ryunosuke’s lead.

The store looked rather well kept, other than having multiple parts that were hastily and freshly painted over and patched up. There were also some burn marks, patches of blackened walls and ground, and decorations broken in big pieces scattered around. An old sign on top of the door read, “Park’s General Shop” in Japanese, Korean and English.

“Hello? Mrs. Park, it is me Ryuu and I have come to collect my order. There is also someone that I want you to meet as well.” Ryunosuke called out as he stepped into the store to greet its owner and Michi slowly followed him.

A middle-aged woman wearing a pale blue dress and a young girl with light brown hair and glasses came out to greet them. The young girl glanced at Michi oddly.

“Ryuu! Who is this funny-looking girl? Do her eyes have magical power just like the Jewelettes?” The young girl asked Ryunosuke, pointing at Michi.

“Sora! That's rude! Apologize to her!” Mrs Park scolded her daughter. She quickly turned to Michi for an apology. “Sorry about my daughter, she’s still young. What’s your name, miss?

“Amanogawa Michi Beatrice, Mrs Park,” Michi replied.

“Oh, Amanogawa, she must be Ayumi’s younger sister then.” Mrs. Park said, looking at Michi’s face under her hood. “You do look like a younger version of her.” 

“But mom, she looks like a real-life Alexandrite other than her left ey-” protested Sora before her mother shooed her to the back of the store.

“Well, enough of that. Ryunosuke, here is all the stuff that you had ordered and here is a box of Karairo Drops for you Michi, on the store’s tab, I heard you like sweet stuff from your sister.” Mrs Park smiled as she gave two heavy looking plastic bags to Ryunosuke as he handed in the money and receipt.

“Thanks.” Michi took the tin candy box from Mrs Park’s hands and put it in her pocket.

“Also, I heard from Ryunosuke that your son is in the same year along with me in Avadonia Academy but currently sick, is he alright? Should I bring his homework if I can?”

Mrs Park’s kind, smiling face turned into a grimace as she replied coldly, “No, Haneul is alright, it's just that he has a cold. All he needs is some rest and he will be in school in no time, but I wholeheartedly thank you for your concern for him.”

In a sweet yet cold tone, she said, “Thank you for shopping, we will see you next time.”

Just as the two turn to leave, a motorbike can be heard from a distance.

As Ryunosuke went back to the car to put the bags into the back of the trunk, Michi decided to open the tin box in order to eat some candy to help ease her jetlag headache. As she slowly savoured her candy, she pulled out her phone to change the language setting from Romanian to Japanese and to also glance through some local news and posts to familiarise herself with her new home. 

It’ll help take her mind off that dream as well.

She first went looking at the local news: all the details of horrible crimes and ongoing crises, both local and overseas are written in graphic and vivid details.

Reading those all tragedies, Michi felt a mix of disgust and disappointment.

But could she do anything about it?

The voice of her father echoed in her head, _“Michi, the first rule of being a hero is not to be reckless and jump into the first sign of danger without a second thought!”_

“Yeah, Papa was right, I can’t be a reckless idiot anymore, but yet …” Michi mumbled wishfully.  
Hoping to clear her mind, she decided to check on the gaming news.

“Mmmm, Twilight Atelier and Akashic System are trending again, gee I wonder what is so special about it.” Michi clicked on the hashtag. 

“Live Akashic System Stock Report, Vision Stock Rise.”

“Twilight Atelier reached 44 million players in one month during beta launch.”

“Twilight Atelier announced an in-game collaboration with Project Synic!”

“Project Synic Stars: Mimino Pier, Mawari Unmei, Tsukino Kageko, Iza Nanami, Kirifuda Shiki and Lacie Arsenic promote TAxSynic event!”

“Vision Group announces an investigation on the current build of Twilight Atelier dealing with bugs that prevent players from logging out after clearing a dungeon.”

“Huh, nothing special other than that bug issue they finally addressed. After all, just regular game news, I think.” She paused a bit thinking back on the irony of being a relative of someone working at Vision Group, but currently not a beta tester or player of its current flagship game. 

“Maybe I can catch Lacie’s Midnight Channel steam as well, she might talk about the TA event and the newest build of said game, but my head hurts so that a maybe...” she thought to herself.

Suddenly, Michi felt as if there was someone watching her. She looked back, only to see Mrs. Park greeted another customer, a white haired, pale skinned glasses wearing young man wearing a black long coat with a motorbike helmet under his arm.

“Just another customer. I really need to take a break.” Michi thought.

As she heard Ryunosuke calling her to leave, she quickly picked up her stuff and sluggishly walked back to the car. 

Unbeknownst to her, the translucent butterfly was following behind her.

This butterfly had flown to her after it had been resting on the biker’s shoulder.

* * *

**Evening**

**Praestrigiae Photo Studio, Yukari Street of** **Kyonagi District**

Another car ride later, with Michi having finished half of the candy box, the two of them had arrived at the front step of the Praestrigiae Photo Studio on Yukari Street. As Ryunosuke tries to find a parking spot to park his car, Michi starts trying to recall back that dream she had again, but unlike back at the Park’s shop where the memories of the said dream were vivid, it’s now only a hazy image. No matter how hard she tried to recall it, she can’t even picture a snippet of it.

“That’s weird, whenever I had that nightmare when I was younger, I could always remember but now …” Michi thought to herself, as she took another candy from the box.

“You could lose your appetite for dinner if you eat those candies at that pace like that.” sighed Ryunosuke as he gave a glance to Michi’s candy-filled mouth.

Michi responded to his comment by pulling a raspberry toward him.

Ryunosuke looked at his watch: 17:30. “Well, guess we can wait for a while since your sister might need to take some time to take off her makeup and costume. That Merci-Ashling may be able to fly in-game, but that motion-capture suit and gear are rather heavy.”

“I thought it was mostly CGI and computer editing nowadays?” Michi asked as she fiddled with her locket to distract herself from the candy. “It is kinda a surprise they are still using live models doing shoots as virtual idols are becoming more and more commonplace.”

“It’s mostly for the sake of realism and to showcase the technological power of the Akashic System’s life-like motion capture, but after all those buzzwords it just means more work in crunch time for us programmers.” Ryunosuke sighed.

“Gee, I thought Vision has good benefits for their employees.” laughed Michi.

“That came from a steep cost, honestly,” Ryunosuke replied to Michi’s attempts to be snarky with a good laugh. 

Then Ryunosuke saw a young woman walking towards the car, wearing a big floppy hat, sunglasses, and a face mask that obscured her face. She carried a paper bag in both her hands with her purse shoved on the top. Ryunosuke instinctively opened the car door for her as Michi waved at her older sister and greeted her in a muffled voice “Hey, Ayumi! Haven't heard from you in so long! The last time we saw each other face to face, I think... three years ago?”

Ayumi Samara Amanogawa gave her younger half-sister a smile and a nod behind her mask. She took off her hat and sunglasses revealing her long silky blond hair, freckled face and deep azure eyes that matched her sister’s right eye. The fashion model stepped in the next seat of her boyfriend’s car, putting the sunglasses hanging on her jacket pocket and fixing her hair with one hand. While Michi threw her sister’s hat and purse into the trunk, Ayumi held the paper bag tighter, as to prevent any wandering eyes from looking at its contents. 

“Well, Dearie, how was work today? Did Kira and them give you any problems at the shoot?” Ryunosuke grinned at his beloved.

“No, all of them were perfect gentlemen towards me today.'' Ayumi paused a bit.“Kira even commented on how lucky you are for having a model girlfriend as well, who is also willing to help. ” Smiled Ayumi as she took off her mask and looked back at her sister.

“How were the plane trip and the tour, Michi?”  
“Everything is wonderful, well aside from still having jet lag since my head still hurts a lot, but at least I don’t feel like throwing up any more…” Michi said sleepily to her sister while taking another piece of candy from the box. 

“Guess we should head home soon then. I did tell Michi I can drop her off back home early and then pick up you, but she still insisted on coming along.” Ryunosuke said jokingly.

“Well, guess you’re too tired for the surprise then, Michi?” Ayumi said in jest as she handed the paper bag to Michi.

Shoving her candy box back into her pocket, Michi quickly looked into it and her eyes widened when she saw its content.

Inside was a black box with “A.K.A.S.H.I.C. System Version 1.5” and the Vision Company logo printed on it, a birthday card, and a beta tester login code for Twilight Atelier that was sandwiched between the card’s flips.

“It’s a late birthday gift from me and Ryu, we originally planned to send it to you in Romania around your birthday but work got in the way. We decided we can hold onto it when Anastasia informed us you would be staying with us for at least a year. So here it is Michi, your every own Akashic System as both a birthday present and a housewarming gift!” Ayumi grinned.

“Do you like it, Michi?” asked Ryunosuke, still focused on the road.

“At least it isn’t chocolates, anything heart-shaped or roses. Oh, the woes of being born on Valentine's.” Said Michi in a semi-snarky tone. “Thanks a lot, big sis and Ryunosuke.”

“You can call me Ryu like everyone else, Michi, we’re family, right?” Ryunosuke smiled as he looked into the back view mirror.

“Nah, honesty I think Ryuryuken fits you better,” Michi said with a grin.

Ryunosuke just sighed at the young girl and shook his head.

* * *

**Night**

**Nasume District**

**Asuka** **Mansion**

After Ryunosuke had parked his car at the car park, the three of them walked into the lobby of Asuka Mansion, the apartment complex that Ayumi and Ryunosuke were currently renting a room from. Michi held on to all of her luggage with her remaining strength, with her birthday gift now in her backpack, slowly following in the footsteps of her big sister and Ryunosuke.

The building’s lobby wasn’t as fancy as those in net shows, but not as dingy as that of her old boarding house in Romania. All the basic components of a lobby were there: seats, mailboxes for all the apartments rooms all lined up on the wall, with three lifts at the opposite side from it, potted plants for decoration at each corner and a security bot standing guard to prevent any intruders from coming in without a keycard.

As the three of them waited for the lift to come down, Michi sat down on one of the lobby chairs. “Which floor is your apartment in?” asked Michi to Ryunosuke.

“The 6th floor, and also here is your keycard for you to go out if you want to.” Ryunosuke put down his bags and handed Michi a keycard. “Had to sign a ton of paperwork for the landlord to get this, so don’t lose it or I would be in big trouble.” he chuckled nervously.

“Then I need to be super careful then, not to lose it.” Michi sighed as she eyed the card.

“Don’t listen to him, Michi,” smirked Ayumi as she rolled her eyes at Ryu.“He’s just joking, that's just a spare card I had. Ryu-babe, how many times that I said not to freak out Michi, she is still learning to readjust her life in Japan!” Ayumi playfully scolded Ryunosuke while gently punching his stomach. 

“Fine, fine. It’s supposed to be a harmless joke…” Ryunosuke sighed while scratching his head after being “scolded”.

“Gee, Ayumi. Is Ryunosuke now your whipping boy now? I won't judge you guys, but if you two want to show your LOVE toward each other like that, just get a sound-proof room and not in public…” Michi snarky commented on the whole situation.

Ayumi’s face turned bright red after hearing Michi’s comment. “Wait… WAIT Michi we aren’t in THAT kind of relationship!” before she started spouting gibberish out of embarrassment and Ryunosuke trying to pat his girlfriend’s shoulder in sympathy while trying his best to hide his laughter at Michi’s comment on their relationship while the onlookers looked at them flabbergasted on what they just saw and heard.

After all the laughter had died down, the three of them quickly stepped into the lift.

* * *

Arriving at the door of Room 606, Michi pressed the keycard to the digital lock. After hearing the clicking sound, confirming the door was unlocked, she stepped in, and all of the lights automatically switched on, revealing the small but cozy apartment. The living room doubled as the dining room with the kitchen being nearby, bright white walls with minimal decorations, all of which were much like what she has seen from the photos they have sent before.

“Sooo, where do I put my stuff and nap until it is dinner time?” Michi curiously examined her new home for the next few years. 

“Your room’s at the end of the hallway, I think?” Ayumi answered her sister's question. “We converted it from the old study, so it wasn’t that-” but before Ayumi could finish, Michi grabbed her luggage, and started to run into her room.

The small room was rather simple, there was only a foldable futon bed, a small desk and bookshelf set with a chair, a closet, and a standing mirror. Michi put the two suitcases under the desk and her backpack on the chair, taking off her jacket and locket. She quickly opened the bed and laid down on it. It wasn’t as comfortable or fluffy as her old bed in Romania, but it was good enough to relax on right now.

“School doesn't start until the day after tomorrow so I can explore the city by myself, at least the neighbourhood around Nasume. I can’t go anywhere farther without my bike anyway and I am saving money on skipping the train fee as much as I could.”

Suddenly, a vision of an abandoned Ferris wheel flashed within her eyes.

“Guess, I really need to sleep, I am starting to see hallucinations,” Michi mumbled to herself, before drifting herself to dreamland.

* * *

???

Michi found herself floating within the void again with a glass-like body, the painful noises began to ring in her head again, but this time she can hear them louder and clearer than before.

_“I hate you, you liar!”_

_“She would be still alive if you were more careful, Michi....”_

_“Papa, wake up, please wake up!”_

_“Michi the demon-child~, when she looks at you, will get cursed~ By her evil eye~”_

_“ Why are you doing this, Amanogawa?”_

_“Michi, I am so disappointed in your role in this…”_

_“Michi are you happy now?”_

As all of them began to overwhelm her mind, she tried her best to block out the noises by covering her ears and closing her eyes in an effort to avoid them.

Yet, those voices kept hounding her, and suddenly the abyss spouted light based daggers aimed at her, the blinding light that the shards emitted forced Michi to keep her eyes shut, trying wiggle her way out of shards attack range before they could attack her, But it was too late; one of them flung and shattered her left hand.

Michi gasped and opened her eyes due to the pain, no blood spilling out from her wound, but still cracks started to appear around the back of her hand and some of her fingers had been broken off and floating away from her. Using her still intact right hand, she grabbed all the finger shards and shoved them into her skirt pocket while braving the noises.

“Ouch, it hurts so bad, even if it is a dream, this pain feels real like my hand has been cut off!” Michi thought to herself voicelessly.

Just as Michi tried to recollect her thought on what this dream meant, another of the light daggers swung at her leg, barely missing her heel.

Michi tied up the left sleeve of her jumper with a knot as a makeshift case in an effort to keep her remaining arm stump to stay in place and to store the shards when it broke, she wiggled a bit to keep her balance and realised that she can move freely in this dream, unlike the previous times where she was bounded and tied to unseen strings.

Then she saw a butterfly made of glass effortlessly dodging the daggers and a familiar little voice as it flew past her.

**_ “guess yOu are in a bit Of a pickle here, Michi? will yOu face yOur REALITY, and WAKE UP frOm the DREAM?” _ **

“Isn’t this your fault that I am stuck in this dream?”

The little voice paused for a while and replied to Michi the most logical thing to say, **_ “nOpe!” _ **

“Thanks for asking, I just think I might need to count to 3 and poof back to reality.” Michi grumbled at the little voice.

**_ “wait, dOn’t, i am alsO cOnfined here with yOu and it is the Only by cOOperatiOn that we can depart fOrm here! alsO, if yOu gOt tOilwOrned and enervated into fragments by the daggers yOu might fell tO a “DEEP SLEEP” that yOu cOuld never wake up frOm!” _ **

“That sounded too outlandish to be true.” Michi rolled her eyes at the little voice/butterfly.

**_ “i might remedy yOur left hand if yOu meet me.” _ **

“Fine, where are you anyway?” Michi sighed.

**_ “at the bOttOm of the abyss, fOllOw the butterfly.” _ **

“Better not unleash something horrible…” Michi slowly assumed a diving pose to mentally prepare herself to meet what she assumed was the reason for these weird and vivid nightmares. 

The journey to the bottom of the abyss is long and felt more like hours hounded by daggers and noises. While she didn’t let any more of her body parts be shattered by the daggers, the noises drained much of her mental energy.

Michi landed on the bottom of the abyss, and instead of the usual grimdark abyss-like look, stars dotted around the whole area shimmering around.

“Ok, I am here, little voice where are you?” Michi yelled as she looked around the abyss.

**_ “i am right here, i can’t get up, can yOu pick me up by yOur left hand?” _ **

The butterfly landed on something that looked like a hand puppet with fox ears on a toy plane. Michi untied her left sleeve showing her stump and reached out to what she assumed to be the owner of the little voice.

Michi felt her stump getting heated by the puppet’s glow as it slowly reformed back to a full hand, the only remaining injury was a crack like scar resembling an 8 point star compass.

 **_ “THANK YOU, i am the LITTLE PRINCE and I WILL ALWAYS BE-” _ **  


Before she could hear the rest, Michi passed out from the pain.

* * *

Michi jolted herself awake by the pain and found herself now on the floor of her new room .

“What was that dream about? It feels so real and yet I can still call it a dream.” Then she saw the star compass scar on the back of her left hand, before Michi could react to it, the mark disappeared as if it was a hallucination.

“Hey Michi, wake up! Dinner’s ready!” Ryunosuke’s voice shouted out from the living room.

“Coming!” Michi yelled in reply as her stomach rumbled out of hunger.

The table lavishly showed a banquet of the food set that Ryunosuke had bought from the Park’s, while mostly homemade Korean dishes, there are also some Japanese sweets and Western style deli platters.

“Oh, Michi I think you will like this meal, it wasn’t the stuff we eat daily, but I figured out you would like spicy food and a little bit of everything that the best of Towa has to offer.” Ryunosuke smiled and said.

“Or you just have said we can’t reserve a table at the restaurant we planned to bring Michi, so make do with the things we have bought from the Parks.” sighed Ayumi. “Ryu, you are wonderful but sometimes you do have poor time management.”

“Never mind about that, let’s dig in big sis!” Michi smiled at their efforts to welcome her and make her feel more at home.

“It is “Thank you for the food”, Michi, your Japanese has gotten a bit rusty.” laughed Ayumi.

“I would said “Bon appétit” for the flair it brings, but “Thank you for the food” would be more suitable for this.” Ryunosuke nodded in agreement with Ayumi.

Michi hungrily devoured yet another piece of gimbap, leaving Ryunosuke and Ayumi bewildered at her voracious appetite. ‘Slow down Michi, there’s enough for everyone and you will get sick eating that fast.” sighed Ayumi as she rubbed her forehead at her sister’s eating habits while Ryunosuke just went back to the kitchen to get drinks for everyone.

“It's ok, I didn’t eat that much on the plane, so you can say that the candy that Mrs. Park gave me is what I had for my first meal in Japan, and also water.” Michi stopped to swallow the food in order to speak more clearly so her words won’t be muffered by the food she had shoved in.

While the food is delicious, Michi attempted to use food to eat away the pain of the mark forming and also to leave the weird dream behind, and it is mostly working as she thought, but still, she still has many questions about it and that vision of the Ferris wheel...

“So, Michi, when will you hand in the transfer form to the local branch of Avadonia Academy?” Ryunosuke asked as he bought out some cans of fruit juice, the sound of them breaking out Michi’s trance.

“I think the day after tomorrow? I still need a day to rest out my jet-lag and to adjust to the Japanese timezone anyways?” Michi replied while shovelling more food into her mouth.

“So an excuse to skip school for a day huh? I do wonder how Anastasia will react to it, on the thought of her daughter playing hooky.” Ayumi rolled her eyes teasingly.

“Mama would be understanding of my situation in adjusting to a new environment. Also, I am waiting for my bike to arrive for me to get around Towa to build up the strength in my legs,” Michi said while pointing at her legs. “ I can’t always rely on Ryu’s car to drive me around the city right?”

“Well, you did say you want to be more independent in our last video call. Just be careful and also don’t run off to weird places and know your limits. I don’t want you to get into more trouble.” Ayumi sighed at her little sister.

“Ok, ok,” Michi said while thinking to herself. “You won’t believe me if I said what just happened in my dream with the Little Prince like puppet.”

“Of course, if you want to have an extra day to test out the Akashic System, I won’t blame you on giving yourself some break time but I do hope you can balance and be responsible for your studies and entertainment.” Ayumi said to Michi.

“Well, I am old enough to be home alone anyway, so I can take care of myself .” Michi giggled.

* * *

After helping to wash the dishes and going through her usual bedtime preparation. Michi looked at the stars outside, as per her habit of being an amateur astronomer and said to herself, “What an eventful day it is… strange yet familiar, I do wonder what Little Prince is trying to say before I woke up. Hmmm, something like always be by my side? Or always be within me?”

She yawned and snuggled up in her bed, and for once Michi Amanogawa didn't dream of anything…. 

**Author's Note:**

> For fun and (for spoilers), Here is a music playlist of PVM: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtptpkgJQNJgtSgjrTSxWg-9Pxzj4JBAm


End file.
